Musings, laments, and advice on life with a kid on the autism spectrum.

Monday, August 29, 2011

My Mantras

I will never understand the kind of pride that prolongs struggle in any form. Yet we all take part in it. The longer it takes to admit to a problem, the longer it takes to arrive at a solution. As I've been setting aside some time each day to work on pre-k stuff with Isaac, I've noticed more than a few holes in his understanding of phonics. There is always a temptation as a parent to believe your child is perfect. And to me Isaac is perfect. He just needs a little, or may I say, a lot of help with grasping certain things. Like letter sounds. How did we skip to working on spelling simple words without him understanding letter sounds or recognizing all lower case letters? I'm guessing a little pride on the parenting side. "We're fine! We're catching up! Nothing to see here..."

So I'm thinking I need to add another mantra to my growing list of ones that work for us, which already includes "You're four now...(insert expected behavior here)." And the soon to start again, "Remember, no matter who opens the number 9 door (at school), you still have to go in." There is the always-helpful, "Remember, no matter how much fun you have, when I pick you up it's time to go home." The classic, "Use your words." I need to add this one for myself, "He's four. He doesn't get X. We will now work on X before moving onto Y. We will not get discouraged. We will not feel guilty. We will not compare. But we WILL work on it. Consistently."

1 comment:

P.S. I think mantras work for our spectrum kid because of the repetition being part of our routine. The number 9 door mantra every day on the way to school repeated at least twice before arriving ended tantrums at drop-off. Just thought I'd mention that.